The small port City of Manistee, MI has been ground zero for Michigan's most significant coal battle in the last decade. Houston-based Tondu Corporation planned a coal facility[1] for the community in 2004, which was turned back by significant citizen opposition.[2] Citizens argued that a heavy industrial development in this beautiful area on Lake Michigan would kill off the region's tourist-heavy economy.[3]

In 2007, the company announced it was investigating converting its TES Filer City Station to IGCC, a project it estimated would cost between $200 million and $300 million. Tondu said the proposed conversion would more than double the power output of the plant, while also cutting emission levels by 50 percent. The company has not filed any permit applications to date.[4][5]

In September 2010, the Sierra Club concluded that the project had been abandoned.[6]